Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt

Hello! I'm finally back and prepared to spend my summer (finally) posting to this blog more often than I have been. Sooo I really hope everyone's ready to read as much as I am.

I'll start my unplanned hiatus with what is certainly going to be one of my top reads for 2011: Gary Schmidt's Okay for Now, an outstanding coming-of-age tale set in the late 1960's.

I couldn't tell you why Patrick Stump holding ice cream came up when I looked for a picture of the book to put up, but there you go.

Anyway, this book is sort of a side story to his kids' story "The Wednesday Wars", which I've never read but have heard about since elementary school. His new book is about Doug Swieteck and growing up in a small town in upstate New York. Having spent his childhood in Brooklyn, Doug isn't expecting to enjoy life at the "Dump", as he calls his new house. It takes a local girl named Lil Spicer and adventures with James Audobon's "Birds of America" book for him to open up and enjoy the world around him.

One of the best parts about this book is the fact that Schmidt is able to instill emotion in the reader from the beginning pages. Books that can get me to make happy or sad faces as I'm reading it based on what's happening in the story must be good, otherwise I would be much more neutral and not really care about what I was reading as much. The story was well-paced and a hell of a lot of fun to read. I wasn't happy about getting to the end, only because I wanted there to be more to read. Definitely a priority novel to read this summer and I will be very upset if you don't.

Up next, I'll get started on Rick Riordan's books. I read both "The Lost Hero" and "The Throne of Fire" recently so I'll most likely make a few entries, one for each of his series. Keep me posted on anything you're reading now, whether you agree or disagree about a book review, or really just wanna talk to me about books. Seeing as I work in a bookstore I kind of enjoy those conversations.

Peace,
Justin

Oh PS, here's a picture from Audobon's book. I think these are awesome pictures, it would definitely be worth learning more about Audobon and his work in the future..

Once upon a midnight dreary...

So yeah, I'm well aware that a) it's 1.21 in the morning and b) I haven't done any book reviews in over a month. And sad to say, I won't have another post for another two weeks. It's one thing to read a book, it's quite another to write up a review of the book. Needless to say, I have a laundry list of books to review and I promise I'm going to get them all done once my semester is over (again, 2 more weeks till I have a life). Expect reviews of:

- Sacrament: Clive Barker
- Conspirata: Robert Harris
- I am Number Four: Pittacus Lore
- The Lost Hero: Rick Riordan
- The Gunslinger series: Stephen King
- Okay for Now: Gary Schmidt
- Throne of Fire: Rick Riordan

and probably in the next 2 weeks, at least 2 other books (I need something for when I take a break from studying). If you're looking for books to start your summer reading pile, I recommend any of these, especially I am Number Four, Okay for Now, and the Gunslinger series; they're all excellent novels by great authors. And they go pretty quickly, so they're good for rainy days, beach days, whatever days are ahead in the coming weeks. Oh, and Rick Riordan's 3 series are all outstanding, but I definitely would recommend starting with The Lightning Thief and the other four books in his Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, before starting the Lost Hero (subseries) and the Kane Chronicles (The Red Pyramid and Throne of Fire, both modernized novels featuring the ancient Egyptian gods).

In any case, make sure you're picking up books. Can't rest your mind all summer and expect it to function well in the fall! I'll be up and posting again in 2 short weeks!

Wish me luck on finals.... or just take them for me..
Justin